Garantex administrator arrested in India at request of US authorities

Indian police have arrested the co-founder of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the European Union and the U.S. government, under India’s extradition law, TechCrunch has exclusively learned and confirmed with state authorities. At 4 p.m. local time (3:30 a.m. PT) on Tuesday, the state police of Kerala arrested Lithuanian national Aleksej Besciokov in the coastal municipality of Varkala, a state police official who made the arrest confirmed to TechCrunch. The police official said the Patiala House Court in New Delhi issued the arrest warrant against Besciokov. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Besciokov of personally approving transactions on Garantex linked to North Korea-government hackers and other cybercriminals, criminally charging Besciokov for facilitating money laundering on the crypto exchange. Indian government officials confirmed Besciokov’s arrest in a statement later on Wednesday. The statement said that Indian police had sought a ... Read full article.